Even the best of us can benefit from cold water to the face occasionally.

In mid-2022 I finally quit making excuses and enjoyed a 3-week trip to Greece, Türkiye, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. What shook me out of my "I don't want to contract Covid" inaction was a friend's story that he had recently returned from the Polish-Ukranian border assisting refugees.

Fully vaccinated and masked, why was I sitting on my hands? If I drive a car, walk across the street, and eat indoors at restaurants, what was my excuse for not “risking” travel? My colleague’s matter-of-fact response to my “done anything interesting lately?” query was cold water in my face.

I have since taken several trips and enjoyed each. Thank goodness for that cold water in my face.

It is easy to become complacent, over-estimate our current mastery, or let the potential downside of an action corner us into inaction. Those are rarely the mark of leadership we want to follow.

Your supply chain was never a fully visualized well-oiled machine.

Pre-Covid, you struggled to attract the workforce you want and need.

Customer expectations were never stagnant.

Investing in building muscle is an ages old demand. Details may be different now but taking decisive action to make giant leaps forward is an ongoing requirement of any business.

Consider these questions:

Supply Chain – What specific steps have you taken:

• to simplify?
• to increase responsiveness and resilience?
• to rationalize products, parts, and suppliers?
• to enhance multi-level visibility?

People – What specific steps have you taken

• to remove toxic employees, regardless of their skillsets?
• to capture and teach knowledge of departing workers?
• to respect employees as individuals with individual needs and goals?
• to emphasize characteristics rather than years of experience in new hires?
• to speed the effective onboarding to the company and to new roles?
• to develop training skills in knowledgeable employees?
• to gather and leverage diverse backgrounds?

Strategy – How have you redefined yours to reflect current realities in

• supply chain
• people
• global socioeconomics
• technical advances
• constituent expectations regarding ESG?

I could ask each of you hundreds of questions specific to your industry, size, and market position. I could help you develop and implement decisions.

But it is most important that you know it’s time. Time to quit making excuses, quit reacting like a pinball, and quit waiting for “normal.”

It’s here.

Your future is yours to create. It’s time.

Now dry that cold water off your face and start moving.